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By Jasper Ward and Anna Mehler Paperny
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Pakistani citizen living in Canada was arrested on Wednesday and charged with planning an attack in New York City in support of the Islamic State, the Department of Justice said on Friday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, is accused of plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn around Oct. 7, 2024, nearly one year after Hamas' attack in Israel.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Khan, who is also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, aimed to kill "as many Jewish people as possible."
The Department of Justice was not able to confirm if Khan had obtained legal counsel.
Khan attempted to travel from Canada to the United States where he intended to use automatic and semi-automatic weapons to carry out the attack, according to the indictment.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement Friday they arrested Khan on Wednesday in Ormstown, Quebec, south of Montreal. He is set to appear in court in Montreal Sept. 13.
Khan told two undercover law enforcement officers of his plans to create "a real offline cell" of Islamic State supporters to carry out an attack, the indictment alleged.
He instructed them to obtain AR-style assault rifles, ammunition and other materials to carry out the attacks, and identified specific locations where the attacks would take place.
Khan targeted New York City because it has "the largest Jewish population in America," prosecutors said.
"We are deeply grateful to our Canadian partners for their critical law enforcement actions in this matter. Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack," Garland said in a statement.
Khan faces up to 20 years in prison.
Oct. 7 would be the first anniversary of an attack by Hamas on Israel that left about 1,200 people dead and triggered an Israeli assault, now in its eleventh month, that has so far killed more than 40,000 people.
Communities across North America have since reported increases in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Anna Mehler Paperny; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh; editing by Diane Craft)
